Can tar sands ever be sustainable?

The Canadian government could be set to try to "green" the country's tar sands, as it prepares for a wide-ranging consultation exercise designed to curb the environmental impact of Alberta's controversial tar sand developments.

According to comments made last week by Alberta's sustainable resource development minister Mel Knight, at least a fifth of tar sands land could be set aside for conservation under recommendations that are due to feature in the consultation.

He added that the state government could approve a legally binding plan based on the consultation early next year.

Local environmental groups are already positioning themselves to demand an increase in the amount of land that is protected, with some campaigners suggesting that up to 40 per cent of the boreal forest that could be developed for tar sands extraction should be conserved.

As the government gears up to try to improve its battered environmental reputation, energy firm Suncor is similarly trying to present itself as a responsible tar sands developer with the release of its latest sustainability report, which is the first since it merged with Petro Canada last year.

Rick George, chief executive at the company, said the report demonstrated that "the new Suncor, like the old Suncor, is strategically focused on responsibly developing Canada's oil sands".

The report features various environmental goals for the next year, including the implementation of water usage principles that it said it could not implement last year because of the merger process.

Other goals include a commitment to introduce a tailings reduction process that will see more tar sands tailings turned to solids that can be removed from the land.

The company also pledged to reduce its air emissions by 10 per cent by 2015, and double the amount of reclaimed land it has delivered by the same date. The company has disturbed 17,161 hectares of land since it started mining the oil sands in 1967, and has so far reclaimed just 6.9 per cent of the total. Meeting its 2015 goal would therefore see it reclaim a little over an eighth of the land that it has disturbed.

The public and private sector commitments to reduce the environmental impact of the tar sands follow years of campaigning from green groups which argue that the development of the region represents one of the most environmentally damaging and carbon-intensive projects anywhere on Earth.

Campaigners have repeatedly demonstrated that the process of extracting oil from tar-soaked sands has a carbon footprint that is up to eight times larger than conventional oil production, while developers have been consistently accused of polluting water courses and failing to adequately clean up depleted tar sands sites.